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November 22, 2019

The “bubble tea craze” has taken over the country
and Davao City is no exception. With more and more people clamoring for this
satisfying drink, business owners need to have access to top quality raw
materials and highly responsive after-sales support from the best manufacturers
and suppliers in Taiwan.

Opening doors of opportunities is the Taiwan
Bubble Tea Pavilion at the Taiwan Expo 2019, held last November 8-9, 2019 at
the SMX Convention Center Davao. Organized by the Taiwan External Trade
Development Council (TAITRA), the special exhibition featured member companies
of the Taiwan Bubble Tea Alliance, an organization established in 2017 to unify
and boost the collective strength of over 125 bubble milk tea vendors and
industrial firms.

With a theme "Taiwan Bubble Tea, Bubble Up
Your Life!," the exhibition and business conference gave bubble tea fans,
business franchises, and startup entrepreneurs in Davao to see and taste the
latest bubble tea products from Taiwan. Hundreds of visitors, which included local
business owners and buyers in Davao and nearby areas in the Mindanao region,
lined up for the demonstrations and sampling held at the bubble tea booth.
Customers who have tried bubble tea products before cited the difference in
taste quality of the tea and pearl products from the exhibitors.

Highlighting different fields of the bubble tea
industry—raw materials (e.g. tea, tapioca), packaging, equipment, total
solution, and chain stores—the pavilion showcased three alliance members Good
Young Co. Ltd., Mr. Sun International Tea Chain Co. Ltd. (Red Sun), and Great
Eastern Food Co. Ltd., who all shared their field expertise.

Good Young is one of the more popular bubble tea
suppliers in Taiwan. It is best known for its line of milk tea powder, flavor
syrups, and the ready-mix CASA Milky Flavor Tea and CASA Black Tea. Aside from
raw materials, Good Young also offers various services for its business
partners such as taste design, private labeling, OEM customization, and
production technology training. Established in 1989, Good Young Co., Ltd. is a
professional tea manufacturer and mainly supplies tea and coffee products to
various food and beverage industries.

Meanwhile, Red Sun, an international tea brand
known for its innovative beverages such as the Heineken Green Tea (a cold green
tea mixed with Heineken beer) and its handmade tapioca balls or pearls, offered
its franchise services to business owners in attendance. The company is greatly
known in Taiwan for its innovative Heineken Green Tea, which made a historic
record of 2.5 million cups sold in six months in 2005. The product, which was
basically Heineken beer mixed with green tea, has a complex flavor profile
topped with a beautifully frothy foam.

Finally, Great Eastern showcased its
one-of-a-kind innovation to the now lucrative bubble tea industry, which first
came to be in the 1980s. The company developed and exclusively produces 3Q
Jelly Pearl, a pearl product made from naturally extractedKonjac (a kind of taro harvested directly
from the mountains), natural seaweed, sugar, pectin, and Guar gum. It boasts a
low-calorie count of only 70kcal/100g—perfect for the health-conscious milk tea
and bubble tea fans—and can be widely used in various beverages.

Through the Taiwan Bubble Tea Pavilion, business
owners and buyers at the Taiwan Expo 2019 got to see first-hand the integrity
of the overall supply chain in the Taiwan bubble tea industry. At the end of
the event, at least 35 Davao business owners have expressed interest in
partnering with the Taiwan Bubble Tea Alliance for future endeavors. There were
also numerous inquiries from other visitors about franchising popular bubble
tea brands as well as establishing new concepts to make Taiwan bubble tea
products more appealing and enjoyable for the Filipino market.

The Taiwan Bubble Tea Alliance and TAITRA are
hopeful that this event could start more partnerships with Filipino
entrepreneurs and promote the expansion and export of the bubble tea industry
and culture to the Philippines. The exhibition also served as an excellent
opportunity for business owners to connect with industry-leading Taiwan
suppliers for potential partnerships.